Shrooms

[TimR]

Question on shrooms not opening up. I have a nice piece of LR with about 7-8 purple shrooms on it but they don't want to open up nice and flat like you see in pictures. They tend to be about the size of a dime or nickle and stay flat against the rock. These are in my 29 with 40 lbs LR. Lighting is a 2x55 PC with 50/50 bulbs. PH is 8.4 with ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all at zero. The rock is placed half way up the tank. Water flow consist of a SeaClone skimmer and a MaxiJet 1000 that is "T'd" with the water pushing in two directions across the top of the water. Water flow near the shrooms is not excessive.

 

Maintenance consists of monthly water changes of 5 gallons of water. Sorry, using tap water for now until I can upgrade to RO in the next 6 months. No suppliments being added at this time.

 

Any suggestions?

[LOU]

It could be too much light. Are your shrooms facing directly at the light? I have 2x65watts of 50/50, and some of my shrooms do stay small at quarter size. The ones that i have moved to the vertical sides of the LR so that they are facing 90deg away from the ligth source do open nice and big.

Try moving them into some shady area first.

good luck

[Hwarang]

Sorry, using tap water for now until I can upgrade to RO in the next 6 months.

 

I think that's your problem. Upgrade to RO when you can. In the meantime, perhaps you can start purchasing RO water from your LFS?

[Aiptasia]

I've seen mushrooms shrink up in both instances, in poor water quality and in response to high light levels.

 

Usually only neon colored ricordea need to be placed up high in the tank. Move your mushroom colonies down to the surface of the substrate or under an overhanging piece of LR so they can get some shade. Move them to areas where the light and the water movement isn't so strong and give them a few days to recover. If they still look shrunken after three days or so, it's more than likely something in the water itself.

 

Tap water can also contain harmful things such as phosphates, silicates and toxic metals, so you might want to perform a multi-step WC with reverse osmosis made seawater. This is an easy process and it's also good for emergency nitrate reduction. Here's what you do:

 

1) Turn off your heater. Just unplug it for the time being.

 

2) Remove about 80% of the water with a siphon hose.

 

3) Fill the tank with new seawater to about half full. This will dilute any harmful concentrations of substances in the remaining 20% of the water by half.

 

4) Drain the tank back down to the 20% line.

 

5) Fill with new seawater back up to the half full line.

 

6) Drain again to the 20% line.

 

7) Fill the tank back up to full.

 

8) Plug heater back in.

 

The reason you do it this way is easy to see. Right now, your tank has 100% of it's dissolved substances in the water. By dropping it to 20%, you're reducing the concentration up to 80% of it's original level. By filling it half way instead of all the way, and removing it again, you're further diluting the substances in the water by half (1/2 of 20% =10%). By doing this a second time, you've reduced the concentration to 5%, and then by filling the tank up to 100%, it's further diluted to 1-2% of the original concentration.

 

Remember to mix your seawater up at the same temperature as the water originally was in the tank.